Definify.com

Webster 1913 Edition


Guilty

Guilt′y

,
Adj.
[
Com
par.
Gultier
;
sup
erl.
Guiltiest
.]
[AS.
gyltig
liable. See
Guilt
.]
1.
Having incurred guilt; criminal; morally delinquent; wicked; chargeable with, or responsible for, something censurable; justly exposed to penalty; – used with of, and usually followed by the crime, sometimes by the punishment;
as, guilty of
murder
.
They answered and said, He is
guilty
of death.
Matt. xxvi. 66.
Nor he, nor you, were
guilty
of the strife.
Dryden.
2.
Evincing or indicating guilt; involving guilt;
as, a
guilty
look; a
guilty
act; a
guilty
feeling.
3.
Conscious; cognizant.
[Obs.]
B. Jonson.
4.
Condemned to payment.
[Obs. & R.]
Dryden.

Webster 1828 Edition


Guilty

GUILT'Y

,
Adj.
gilt'y. Criminal; having knowingly committed a crime or offense, or having violated a law by an overt act or by neglect,and by that act or neglect, being liable to punishment; not innocent. It may be followed by of; as, to be guilty of theft or arson.
Nor he, nor you, were guilty of the strife.
1.
Wicked; corrupt; sinful; as a guilty world.
2.
Conscious.
In Scripture, to be guilty of death, is to have committed a crime which deserves death. Matt.26.
To be guilty of the body and blood of Christ, is to be chargeable with the crime of crucifying Christ afresh, and offering indignity to his person and righteousness, represented by the symbols of the Lord's supper. 1 Cor.11.

Definition 2024


guilty

guilty

English

Adjective

guilty (comparative guiltier, superlative guiltiest)

  1. Responsible for a dishonest act.
    He was guilty of cheating at cards.
  2. (law) Judged to have committed a crime.
    The guilty man was led away.
  3. Having a sense of guilt.
    Do you have a guilty conscience?
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 8, in The Celebrity:
      I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.
  4. Blameworthy.
    I have a guilty secret.
    • 1893, Walter Besant, The Ivory Gate, chapter II:
      At twilight in the summer [] the mice come out. They [] eat the luncheon crumbs. Mr. Checkly, for instance, always brought his dinner in a paper parcel in his coat-tail pocket, and ate it when so disposed, sprinkling crumbs lavishly—the only lavishment of which he was ever guilty—on the floor.

Synonyms

Antonyms

Related terms

Translations

Noun

guilty (plural guilties)

  1. (law) A plea by a defendant who does not contest a charge.
  2. (law) A verdict of a judge or jury on a defendant judged to have committed a crime.
  3. One who is declared guilty of a crime.
    • 1997, David Brinkley, “June 5, 1983”, in Everyone Is Entitled to My Opinion, ISBN 0345409523, page 32:
      The not guilties walked out and went to work if they had jobs; the guilties were hauled away to spend maybe thirty days on the county farm growing cabbage.